FeatureFeature by Peyton Pollard
S
tudent surveys, per-
sonal headshots,
senior superlatives
and spirit weeks —
hundreds of memories compiled
together into a paper-bound
book creating a journal of stu-
dents’ past year in high school.
The concept of yearbooks
has been relatively the same
since the beginning of educa-
tion: paperback or hardcover
books filled with representa-
tion of students’ hard work
leading up to graduation. The
first yearbooks were composed
in the 1600s and were merely
scrapbooks. Since photogra-
phy was non-existent, students
would fill their books with
notes, articles, flowers and
even hair to remember events.
Because of evolving tech-
nology, current students receive
300-page, laminated hardcover
books filled with high-quality
images and detailed captions.
But what happens to the
beloved yearbook when stu-
dents are not on campus,
masks are mandatory and spir-
it days consist of online videos
and photoshopped images?
After the coronavirus pan-
demic devastated the country
and sent students into man-
datory lockdown in March,
the 2019-20 Pali yearbook staff
was left with a half-finished
yearbook. Pages meant to bebrimming with another three
months of school, sports, se-
nior days and clubs were emp-
ty. In the end, they replaced
these pages with a “We’re sor-
ry” memo and called it a year.
One year later, the yearbook
staff struggles to edit a book to-
gether after two unprecedent-
ed semesters of Zoom class-
rooms, virtual club meetings
and online student surveys.
Luckily, this is the generation
of the digital age, and most,
if not all kids have grown up
surrounded by cellphones, so-
cial media and instant video.
Editor-in-Chief of Pali’s
yearbook Samantha Wallace
says that the yearbook staff re-lied on students to volunteer
to submit their own images
to be included in the book.
Although it is well-known
that members of Gen Z love
to take photos of themselves,
yearbook’s Photography Ed-
itor Maxine Eschger said
that filling the 300-page book
was not a simple task because
photos had to be “mindful
of social distancing guide-
lines and wearing masks.”
This created multiple
obstacles for the yearbook
staff to put together a coher-
ent book full of student life.
While students may take
plenty of photos, the staff
found that many were too shyYEARBOOKYEARBOOK
HOW WILL THIS^400 -YEAR TRADITION SURVIVE COVID-^19?
BY PEYTON POLLARD